Oblivia Adventures - Ch 6

"Oh no! Oh no oh no oh no!" Nema ran to the corner of the house that was burning, the crackling flames greedily devouring the wood panels. "My house is on fire!"

Tess set down the Z.Z. Flyer and ran over to see how she could help. The fire wasn't very large, but she knew that it could easily grow into something monstrous.

"…sometimes I cause little fires with my experiments," Nema was saying, "but not while I wasn't home!" She watched the fire nervously. "We need to put it out!"

"Definitely," Tess agreed. "I'll go run and capture some Pokemon to help put out the fire. You stay here…um…try to keep the fire from spreading. But don't get too close!"

"Okay," Nema said anxiously. She was probably too concerned about her house to argue.

Without further ado Tess ran off, sprinting away to try and find some water-type Pokemon. Flint raced after her.

She dashed down the hill until she made it to the beach. Desperately she looked around for some water Pokemon, but there were none to be found. She ran back up the hill and continued searching. Eventually she found and managed to capture a Shellos, Totodile and Buizel.

When Tess returned, the fire had grown larger. Nema had gotten a bucket and was making trips from her kitchen sink to the flames to dump water on them. She stopped when Tess arrived.

"Hurry," Nema urged. "It's getting bigger!" Tess lined up the Pokemon and gave the command.

"Group Field Move! Go!" The Pokemon simultaneously sprayed water at the flames. It took several minutes, but finally the fire sizzled down and became nothing more than smoldering cinders at the girls' feet.

"Thank you, Tess," Nema said, relieved. "Now, can I have another three requests? The first is – "

"If you really want me to do you some favors," Tess said, slightly irritated, "then you can just ask."

"Ok then." Nema didn't seem to notice Tess's impatience. "Let's set the Z.Z. Flyer in my room. C'mon, it's ok." Eagerly she ran on ahead while Tess sighed and lugged the Z.Z. Flyer after her.

Once inside, Nema said, "The fire made a mess of my room, but that's alright. It was pretty bad to begin with." She motioned to a space just outside the door. "You can set the Flyer there. I'll investigate it and let you know if I find anything interesting."

"Okay," Tess agreed tiredly. Nema seemed to have boundless energy (although that may have quite possibly been due to the fact that Tess was the one carrying the Flyer.)

"That room is my research lab," Nema explained happily. Flint cautiously sniffed the Flyer. "I do all my experiments in there…you can tell that I do experiments, right? You can see that I'm a scientist from my lab coat, right?" The eleven-year-old girl gave her white lab coat a proud tug.

"Yep, I can see that," Tess said, and she could. The coat was a dead giveaway.

"I'm planning to make a weapon to beat up bad guys," Nema explained. "A lot of my work got burned up…but I'm okay with that. I can just do it – "

"Bzz…Beep-beep….Voice….Voi…" The VoiceNav was attempting to say something but appeared to have become worse than before.

"Whoa! Your Styler talks!" Nema squealed. "It's different than my Papa's." She studied it closely. "It doesn't seem to be working very well…"

"No, it isn't," Tess agreed. "I think some seawater wrecked one of the circuits in there or something. You see…" She explained how she had washed up on shore and how it had been malfunctioning ever since.

"Oh, let me see it," Nema pleaded. "I'm sure I can fix it…please!"

Tess looked at Nema warily but knew she basically had no choice. "Okay…be careful with it." She unsnapped the Styler from her wrist and handed it to Nema.

Nema tinkered with it for a few minutes before handing it back to Tess. "All done," she said happily. Tess looked at it.

"Um…it doesn't look much different," Tess confessed. "What – "

"Beep beep! Confirmed rebooting of VoiceNav system, and Styler Modification module." VoiceNav seemed to have recovered completely thanks to Nema's work.

"Wow," Tess said, honestly amazed. "This is great. Thank you, Nema!" Up until that point she had found Nema annoying, but now she was inwardly beginning to respect her. Nema was still young but she certainly knew her way around technology. Professor Hastings would sure like her!

"Hey, you wanted to meet my Papa, right?" Nema asked. "I would introduce you to him, but he's not here. In fact…he's running late."

Tess shifted on her feet. Flint patiently sat beside her and groomed himself with one paw. "Um…do you maybe know when he'll be back?"

"Well, I know that he's supposed to be at the Wireless Tower on Mt. Latolato," Nema said. "We could just go and meet him if you want!"

"That would be great," Tess said agreeably. It was already almost noon and she wanted to meet with him as soon as possible.

"Then I'll be your guide," Nema said cheerfully. "Let's go!"

***

Flint growled at Ukulele Pichu.

"Flint, stop it," Tess commanded. "Pichu isn't doing anything to you."

Flint snorted and turned away.

The group had been trudging up the trail for about an hour. Nema assured Tess that they were almost there, although Tess had a difficult time believing her. She had released Pichu from her Styler in hopes that it could become friends with Flint, but to no avail; the two were still not getting along.

"Flint, I don't know why you can't just get along with him," Tess sighed.

Nema glanced at the Pokemon. "Does Flint just not like Pichu?"

"I guess not," Tess said.

As they rounded a corner on the trail, they were stopped by a uniformed Pincher.

"Hold up, kiddies," he said. "No children are allowed past this point!"

"What?" Nema asked. "But there's nothing dangerous here on Mt. Latolato!"

This Pincher must be trying to stop us from going to the Tower, Tess thought. But why? Well, I'll show him.

"It was safe, up until a few days ago," the Pincher said smoothly. "Now there are all sorts of dangerous characters nearby."

"Would you happen to be one of them, Mr. Pokemon Pincher?" Tess asked sarcastically.

"You bet! Now let me show just how dangerous I can be!" The Pincher stuck out his hand, a strange device that Tess took to be a Control Gauntlet on his hand. "Ivysaur, go!"

"Nema, get back!" Tess exclaimed. "Capture on!"

The Ivysaur shot leaves at Tess's Capture Line. She yanked it back, narrowly evading the attack.

"Flint, go!" Tess cried. Flint leaped in front of Tess and howled. Like he had done with Celebi, dark pulses appeared on the ground. Tess took her chance while Ivysaur was paralyzed. She quickly made loops around the Ivysaur until it was completely captured.

Tess grinned. "Capture complete!"

The Pincher looked nervous. "I-I thought I'd be able to take a couple of kids…but who knew?" He ran away.

"Wait! What're you…" Tess's question died away in her throat as the Pincher sped away. What are you planning?

Nema watched as the Pincher ran away. She looked at Tess worriedly. "…I'm starting to worry about Papa."

***

Minutes later Tess and Nema crossed a bridge across a wide gap and reached what looked almost like a construction site. Pipes and bricks were stacked along the road, and yellow-and-black construction blocks were set aside for later use. Tess had captured a few Pokemon along the way to help with Poke Assists if they were needed.

Tess looked around. Is this the base of the Wireless Tower?

"Stop right there!"

Tess looked around. "What was that voice?"

"That was my Papa!" Nema exclaimed. They ran towards the sound of the voices.

A grown man, dressed in the red-and-black Ranger garb that Tess recognized from the Almia region, was confronting three Pinchers. His hair was blue, but much darker than Nema's, and he had a beard.

"What are you planning to do in the Wireless Tower?" the Ranger demanded.

Tess and Nema ran up to help him. "You have more to deal with now!" Nema crowed.

"Look, the Ranger has backup," snickered one Pincher. "But we can take them!"

The three Pinchers all launched Pokemon at the two Rangers. Nema stepped back as Tess and Rand began their captures.

Tess grunted as she tried to keep up with one of the controlled Pokemon, an extremely energetic Aipom. It sent out an attack at her Capture Line and she struggled to keep it from getting hit. "Are…you…Rand?" she asked between breaths.

Rand had already captured a Gligar and was rapidly drawing loops around a Skuntank. "Yes!" he shouted over his shoulder. "I am! I'm the Area Ranger for the Oblivia Region!"

Tess finished with the Aipom and together with Rand she completed the Skuntank capture. As they released the three Pokemon, the Pinchers backed away sheepishly.

"Everything was fine until they showed up!" one grumbled. "Run!" They made a mad dash away from the Rangers and up to the Tower.

Tess looked at Rand and smiled. "Hi, I'm Tess. I was sent –"

"Papa!" Nema launched herself into her father's arms. "We have some pretty good timing, huh?"

"Nema," Rand said sternly, "I've told you before not to be so reckless. I don't want you to get in the way of my work!"

Nema seemed taken aback. "But Papa, I…"

Rand looked at Tess, then Nema, and sighed. He smiled. "Oh, Nema, I just don't want you getting hurt. I guess it's okay this time. I can see that you must have escorted, ah, Tess, was it? Here." He motioned towards one of the buildings. "Let's talk in there. That way we can avoid running into more Pinchers for the time being." <rb>
***

Inside, Tess introduced herself again to Rand. She noticed that another woman was there, one with blue hair like Nema's.

"So," Rand said, "it's a pleasure to meet you, Tess. I had received word that two Rangers were coming to assist me…but, where's the other one?"

Tess explained her situation as best she could while they listened intently.

"The situation with Ben is worrisome," Rand said. "However, he's a well-trained Ranger; I'm sure he'll be fine."

"That's what I was thinking," Tess agreed, although inwardly she secretly thought that, judging by the way Ben had handled the situation while on the Staraptor, he just might not be all that okay.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," spoke up the woman. "I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Leanne, and I'm Nema's mother."

Tess stuck out her hand and shook Leanne's. "Nice to meet you!"

"My Mom is an archeologist," Nema said proudly. "She looks up legends and stuff from Oblivia's past. Mom, you should have seen Tess. She was awesome! She put out the fire at our house –"

"Our house was on fire?" Rand cut in, alarmed. "Nema, how did that happen?"

"Lightning hit it or something," Nema explained. "But it's okay, nobody got hurt!"

Rand sighed. "Oh, Nema…reckless as always." He turned to Tess. "Thank you so much for putting out that fire. To think that it happened when I wasn't home…"

Leanne walked over to her husband and put her hand on his shoulder. "You can't always watch over the house, honey. It's your job as a Ranger to be out and about all the time."

Rand rubbed his eyes tiredly and smiled at Leanne before turning to Tess. "As you can probably tell," Rand said, "the Wireless Tower has been taken over by the Pinchers. Due to that, our wireless communication has been cut off."

"I see," Tess said. So even if I had gotten my Styler working sooner, I wouldn't have been able to contact Ben anyway….

"This also means we can't communicate with the Ranger Union, so we've been cut off from them for several days," Rand explained. "But I have a proposal." He smacked his hands onto the table. "My thoughts are that, together, you and I take back the Wireless Tower and prevent the Pinchers from furthering their plans…whatever they may be."

Tess thought this was a very bold plan. She liked it. "Sounds good to me," she said. "I'm ready to go whenever you are."

"It's about two o'clock now," Rand said.  "It'll probably take a few hours to get up to the Tower and move out the Pinchers. Are you up to it?"

"Definitely," Tess said. She grinned. "Let's go and Liberate the Tower!"

To be continued…